Travelling as a vegan can be tricky. The sense of adventure you feel when visiting a new city is often accompanied by a hint of worry that you might not know where to eat. Most vegans have a mental list of all the best places near them for plant-based goodness, but as soon as you’re outside of your hometown things can become a little trickier. Everyone does a bit of research into food options when they’re going on holiday, but vegan travellers have to be a little more meticulous. With that in mind, we thought we’d save you some time and compile a list of MICHELIN Guide approved spots that serve a proper vegan menu. Enjoy!
Apricity (© Paul Richardson)
Apricity
If you’re considering eating plant-based while in London, then there’s a good chance you want your food to have minimal impact on the environment. If that’s the case, then heading to one of the capital’s Green Star restaurants seems like a good idea. Among them is Apricity, run by Chef-Owner Chantelle Nicholson with a commitment to sustainability and staff welfare. Her à la carte offers plenty of options for vegans, while the 5 and 7 course tasting menus offer at least one plant-based choice for every course.Bubala
If you took a brief glance at the Bubala website, you wouldn’t know it was a fully vegetarian restaurant. They don’t brand themselves as such, instead letting their plant-powered cooking do the talking, leaving carnivores to realise the meat is missing after already falling in love with the place. The majority of the Middle Eastern sharing plates are vegan, whether it’s the oyster mushroom skewers, the falafel or the smacked cucumbers. There’s a completely vegan version, too, of the ‘Bubala Knows Best’ set feasting menu, which is the only option for dinner.
Bubala (© Haydon Perroir)
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Holding Two MICHELIN Stars, here is proof that even some of London’s very best restaurants serve vegan dishes. As the London outpost of renowned experimental chef Heston Blumenthal, Dinner is one of London’s top places to eat, and fortunately vegans need not feel left out. The vegan à la carte at this restaurant inside the Three Key Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel adopts the same approach as the rest of the menus, taking a historic British dish – like salamagundy from the 18th century – and reinventing it for the modern diner.Gauthier – Soho
Gauthier is a rare example of a restaurant that became plant-based during its lifetime. Its eponymous Chef-Owner, Alexis Gauthier, decided well into his career that he’d had enough of using animal products in his dishes, and completely pivoted his cooking into what it is today. The vegan version of his cuisine retains some of the French classical basis of before, but there’s a real originality to his creations now – as well as a commitment to showing off the brilliant natural flavours of vegetables, from morel mushrooms to Landes asparagus.
Gauthier – Soho (© James Lewis)
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Holy Carrot
Like Gauthier, Holy Carrot is one of the capital’s few fully vegan restaurants. Located in the heart of Notting Hill, it occupies a prime corner site on Portobello Road – and inside it’s as chic as you’d expect. The cooking employs an impressive array of techniques from pickling to open-flame grilling, resulting in a menu of sharing plates that really shows off the variety of what can be achieved with plant produce.
Holy Carrot (© Beca Jones)
Naïfs
Located in the south London district of Peckham, Naïfs is a proper neighbourhood restaurant – one that just so happens to be vegan. Adding to the sense of warmth and community, the set menu is served ‘family-style’ so you and your fellow diners can share the unfussy sharing plates, in which you won’t miss meat for a second. This is straightforward, flavour-packed food that you really want to eat. It’s a simple little place, but run with pride, and ideal if you’re staying in the south-east London area.Pied à Terre
Among the ranks of London’s MICHELIN Starred restaurants, Pied à Terre is significant for two reasons: firstly, it is the longest-serving Star in the city, having held the award for over 30 years; and secondly, it is one of the most vegan-friendly Starred restaurants you will find. This is not a case of an after-thought course for plant-based diners, but a restaurant where everything is available in vegan form. Whether it’s the flexible lunch menu in a choice of lengths or the full 10 course tasting menu, Owner David Moore commits to ensuring veggie diners are looked after.
Pied à Terre (© Etienne Gilfillan)
Plates London
The brainchild of Chef Kirk Haworth, son of industry veteran Nigel, Plates is the result of Kirk’s decision to adopt a vegan diet for health reasons after contracting Lyme disease in 2016. Since then, he’s worked on crafting intricate and ambitious dishes that make vegetables the star. The tasting menu at Plates is 100% plant-based and shows off Kirk and his brigade’s range of technical skills.Scully
Few chefs have as diverse a culinary background as Ramael Scully. He was born in Malaysia and has Chinese, Indian and Irish heritage, and has worked in Sydney, Moscow and now London. These many global influences are present in the vegan tasting menu at Scully, which is notable for being significantly cheaper than its omnivorous counterpart. Despite plant-based ingredients usually being far less expensive than meat and fish, it’s still not all that common for vegan menus to be a cheaper option when dining out – making a meal at Scully all the more appealing.
Plates London (© Safia Shakarchi)
Silo
Another of London’s Green Star restaurants, Silo is one of the best-known eco-minded establishments in the country. This is in part down to the outspoken passion of Chef-Owner Douglas McMaster and his maxims such as “waste is a failure of the imagination”. He and the team here aim to work ‘without a bin’ and even parts of the restaurant’s furniture are made from waste materials. It’s no surprise, then, that they also offer a plant-based version of their tasting menu alongside other commitments to sustainability.Tendril
Tendril describes itself, like the vegetarian who can’t quite let go of burrata, as a ‘mostly vegan’ establishment. Indeed, around 85% of the dishes here are plant-based, presented in sharing plates format with a set menu available if you’re an indecisive diner. The cuisine itself takes on a multitude of influences from all over the globe – so expect your vegetables to be paired with flavours ranging from soy to tahini, wakame to pico de gallo. The diverse range of textures within each dish shows off the kitchen’s abilities.
Tendril (© Anton Rodriguez)
It would be remiss of us not to mention one of London’s many brilliant Indian restaurants when it comes to meat-free dining. Indian food has long been a favourite of vegetarians and vegans, due to it lacking the inherent reliance on meat and dairy that many other world cuisines have. Holding One MICHELIN Star, Trishna is a must-visit for vegans when coming to London. The kitchen here offers not just plant-based options but an entire ‘koliwada’ tasting menu with a real generosity in the portion sizes. Whichever menu you opt for, don’t miss the divine aloo tokri chaat.
Venturing outside of London? Check out our list of The Best Vegetarian & Vegan Restaurants in the UK.
Venturing outside of London? Check out our list of The Best Vegetarian & Vegan Restaurants in the UK.
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Hero Image: © Anton Rodriguez/Tendril
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